DVC..Not what do you eat in the villa, but HOW ?

[eeyoresmom]

We have been to WDW sooo many times and I guess have fallen into a routine. The kids tease me about getting a 1 or 2 bedroom villa because we never use the kitchen ( except for breakfast) I don't even like to be tied to dinner reservations every night but am having a hard time scheduling our days so that we are back at the resort for meal times. We are always there for park opening so are ready for an early lunch ( 11:00-11:30) We usually stay in the park another hour or so then back to the resort for a rest. By 4:00 we usually head back to the parks. Anyway this is what works for us. Anyone do it differently so that you eat some meals in the villa?

[Granny]

Well, you are pretty much describing a commando touring vacation which many WDW frequenters (like DVC owners) have gotten away from. So I think that's the quick answer...we just don't tend to wear out the parks from opening until late.

We tend to eat breakfast in the villa every morning. Other than that we just have some snacks (cheese, crackers, etc) and drinks. We don't cook big meals any more, though we used to make spaghetti or mac & cheese when the kids were young.

I think that many people are similar to yourself and consider all that nice equipment to be "kitchen decoration" for the villa. :)

By the way, Merry Christmas to you! :santa:

[bzzelady]

It depends on the focus of our vacation whether we use the kitchen or not.

When we were there in November, we ate breakfast there all but one day.

My DD likes to make her own brownies (she doesn't like the ones made by the mouse) so we drove everyone in our end of VWL crazy with the smell!

I often do macaroni/cheese or easy lunches if we are around the villa during the day. I have been known to take my crock pot with me when we drive and make a pot roast at the beginning of the week for all to pick at for the rest of the week. If we are on a 4 day or less vacation, nothing but cereal touches the bowls in the kitchen!
This past November, I had one lady remark to me (with this amazed look on her face), "What...you actually use your kitchen??" I guess that maybe she is not in the minority as I used to think.

[disney junky]

With BW, we are close enough for going back from Epcot and MGM. The only times we really use the kitchen are breakfast and snacks, as someone else mentioned. We usually get lunchmeat, maybe keep some hot dogs in the fridge, but we don't really plan around meals.

[Sully]

Last Feb. we stayed for the entire month in a studio at OKW and a studio at SSR. Needless to say, we ate most of our meals in our studio. We took along plates and utensils including an electric frying pan. We did just fine. For the few times when we did eat out, it was a late lunch, cheaper than dinner. For an entire month, we could not afford to eat out all the time. But, we were there for an entire month.:goodvibes

[Buckeye Fan]

We do EXACTLY what you do! When we don't visit the parks, we still eat out. I'm beginning to agree with your kids, even though I don't think I'd want to give up the living room space and separate BRs. Here's to our next generation of DVC owners!!! I see the studios will be popular rental choice! :rotfl2:

Some of our habits...if we're in the parks, we eat at the parks. If we have a car, we'll drive off site 2 or 3 times for dinner. Otherwise, we take busses to several places for dinner (ESPN Zone, Spoodles, Rainforest Cafe, etc.). We LOVE the Coronado food court, so we hit it once or twice. If you like Mexican, the wet burritos and quesadillas are great!!! Anyway, on the rare occassion that we stay in for dinner, we'll do a frozen pizza, breakfast or sandwiches (lunch meat or PB&J) in the room. In all honesty, though, we've done that maybe once or twice in the many, many times we've visited. We just enjoy dining out and that's what we do!!!

Merry Christmas, everyone!!! :santa:

[AKV707]

DW and I are newbies, having had only one trip so far as members. We were in an OKW studio and had breakfast every day in the room. Our next trip will be an 11 night stay in an AKV one bedroom value villa. Because we will be there so many nights, we are planning on cooking dinner in the room at least 4 of the nights. We also do not do the parks commando style anymore so this should work out fine.

Oh, and Merry Christmas to everyone here! Off to dinner with the family at my Mom's!

[melk]

We always eat breakfast in the villa. If we eat our lunch out at one of the parks, then we're usually back to the villa for dinner. Otherwise we come back to the villa for lunch and go out for dinner. So basically, it's one meal out a day. I'm sure we'll have more meals out once the kids are grown, but for now it's a system that works well for us.

[matilda]

We too are newbies just coming back from a one week stay in a cabin at FW. We ate breakfast every morning in the cabin which saved us money right there but also time, getting that extra sleep in the morning not having to rush is priceless. During our stay we became DVC members and have already booked a stay for July 2008 at the BC and plan on eating some lunches and at least one dinner back at the villa. Hopefully this will make us return and get a little rest instead of pounding the pavement all day every day. If you drive and have room for a cooler I would recommend maybe taking some pre made dinners with you so all you need to do is bake it when it is time to eat such as spaghetti sauce, meat loaf, lasagna.

[tjkraz]

We have always taken a mid-day break and we will usually have either lunch or dinner in the room. Our period as DVC renters (and then owners) began when our oldest son was 18 mos old. So taking a mid-day break for naps only made sense.

Next year our youngest will be turning 5 and starting full-day kindergarten, so the days of naps being a necessity are coming to an end. Still I think the breaks suit our touring style. Although we don't visit in the middle of the summer, I appreciate the ability to just unwind for a few hours (it IS a vacation after all), and even change into a fresh set of clothes for the evening.

Our breaks normally fall somewhere in the 12pm to 5pm window. That makes it very easy for us to either have lunch or dinner in the room on any given day. It's rarely anything fancy--salads, sandwiches, mac & cheese...about the most elaborate thing we ever made was a spaghetti dinner for 8 with box noodles and sauce from a jar. :)

Our desire to eat in the room is driven more by convenience than a desire to save money. The kids can still be a pain in restaurants--particularly when they're a bit tired from walking the parks and all of the rides still becon outside the window. In a typical 6-7 day visit, I'll schedule 4 or 5 table service meals and plan to do counter service a couple other times. Aside from that, eating in the room is perfectly convenient and fits right into our schedule.

[Demosthenes]

We grill out one or two nights in a stay. We make pizza in the room once a stay. I make waffles or breakfast burritos everyday (yes, every day) for breakfast. None of this is an effort to save money, but honestly just because we enjoy it.

Last 4th of July, when we were at HH, we ate in every meal but 2. That sounds bad to some people, but we had the time of our lives

[Luigi's Girl]

We never use our kitchen for any meals while on vacation!:)

[gracelrm]

We usually visit for a week at a time. We generally eat breakfast in the room each day, but I don't even turn on the stove for that. I might do bacon in the microwave, poptarts, cereal, donuts, granola bars, fruit, etc.... We probably have lunch in the room 4 or 5 times during the week and always eat out for supper. The only time we didn't use this plan was the time we were on the dining plan. We like to do the parks early - come home by noon or 1:00, have lunch, swim, rest and then back out by 6:00 or so. As our oldest child gets older, leaving the villa for early morning entries is becoming harder and harder. She's 14 and doesn't like to get out of bed and makes us all hate early mornings because of it:scared1: :scared1:

[Longhairbear]

We have always been breakfast only, and a few pizza dinners at the villas, but that is going to change this next trip in Jan.
We are trying to save some money, and eat healthier, by eating in more. That means ordering from Garden Grocer items not available at the Disney markets. Actually we will probably order all our groceries from an offsite place. Lunches will be at the parks, or resorts, but breakfast and dinners from now on will be villa cooked.

[OlderMan]

We're like the earlier poster who makes most meals in the villa.

We cook like we normally cook at home--breakfasts and dinners.

Breakfast is usually eggs. bacon/sausage, bagels/bread, etc.

Dinner can be chicken, pasta, burgers/steaks grilled by the pool.

It's quite a bit cheaper than the Dining Plan or even fast food off site.

Just our preference...

[dianeschlicht]

We have done it "both ways". If it's just the two of us, we usually only eat breakfast in the villa and have one table service place scheduled each day. Then we might have a light supper in the villa too, if our sit down meal was midday. If we have a latter sit down dinner planned, we might have a quick light snack or sandwich when we are back at the villa for our midday break.

When we have guests, it depends on the style or needs of our guests. If they happen to be folks who are needing to spend the least possible, we will plan on cooking all meals in the villa. If they like to eat out, then we do pretty much what we do if it's just the two of us.

We have had several trips with large groups (9-11) in a GV. On those trips, we have cooked all meals in the villa, and it has been like a big party! We had several different family groups, and each group was responsible for the meals for a given day. That kept both the expense and the work down for the group as a whole. It turned out to be GREAT fun too! Whichever group was responsible for making the meals on a given day got to set the menu and the meal times. The rest just needed to show up at those times, and if they didn't...oh well... they got their own meal.

[LindaBabe]

Our most elaborate meal was Thanksgiving turkey for 6 complete with stuffing, mashed potatoes and a vegetable. We probably won't do that again - our villa had three ways to drain spaghetti, but no platter.

Even in a studio, we do breakfast 'in' every day. Alone, I always have a fruit bowl, veggie tray, and rotisserie chicken, as well as uncrustables and my favorite REAL coffee - cannot STAND that swill in the food court.

In March, we're taking off for a six week driving trip of the east coast including stays in Hilton Head, Vero Beach and WDW. In an effort to economize as much as possible, we're staying in studios, and I'm packing my crock pot and maybe the electric fry pan.

We used to tent camp, so even a studio kitchen is quite luxurious. After all, it has power, running water and a fridge that doesn't need to be iced. On vacation, I'm relaxed enough to cook for fun, not 'just' because we have to eat!

[spiceycat]

you just to need change your schedule a little.

start by not eating lunch at the parks - stay at the parks until noon (like 11 am myself) - then go back to the villa to eat lunch.

stay at the villa - resting, relaxing, swimming, shopping until 6:00pm be sure to eat your dinner before you leave.

then go the park that night that has EMH - no matter what your earlier park was.

you can do it!!!

then it is definitely okay to eat a snack in the parks.

[Pakey]

We do not cook at home so it certainly wouldn't be considered on vacation. Last trip, in a 2 br, we didn't even walk into the kitchen area, let alone use it for anything. Wait, I do think we threw purses, bags on the counter. :rotfl:

[Tink-n-Belle]

We eat breakfast in the villa every morning and once during the week we cook a frozen pizza and during the week when we have a "resort day" we make sandwiches to eat. Other than that we just eat snacks-- We buy bottled water and we each take one to the park in the morning and evening (if we go back to the villa) and a snack to have in the late morning.

The grocery bill for the week is about $130 but hey I have all the comforts of home. :confused3

[Pig Pen]

I rarely cook at home, let alone vacation! :lmao:

[LSchrow]

varies but pretty much:
anywhere between 7-10AM, bfast (if we decide to actually have b'fast ~ only coffee is a neccessity ;) ) is cereal or something from the BW bakery
& sometimes, we get energized :yay: & go to ABC commissary

then hanging out at the pool for a while or go for a walk (& deli meat sandwiches in the villa), or maybe over to a park & eat CS there

dinner is usually at an EPCOT restarant (so we can go on a ride or 2, watch illuminations), else a resort restaurant & hang out there.

as you can prob tell, we don't "do WDW" even remotely commando!! :lmao:

[unixadm]

We drive down from Georgia, so we take a lot of non perishable food with us...then stop at the Publix to get the other stuff.

If we are doing parks, we typically get up very early, have breakfast at the Villa, then head into the park of the day. We will spend the morning hitting the rides (Thanks to TGM for some great touring advice so we see the most possible), then stop for lunch in the park. We then spend early afternoon hitting a few more rides, then back to the Villa.

We will either rest up for a dinner out, or cook something up in the Villa. Last year, we had the meal plan, so it was dinner out every night, but this year it is home cooked meals each night. Out of the 7 nights we are here, we plan on eating out 2 nights...the rest are back at the Villa.

[manning]

Going for the month of Jan. Will be eating in alot. The wash machine broke today and need the money to buy a new one:sad2:

[eva]

We usually have coffee, juice, fruit, and bagels for breakfast. The rest of our meals are normally out. We do have assorted cheese, fruit, and crackers for light snacks with wine later in the day. Sometimes that will serve as our lunch too. We usually hit the parks around 9:00 am and then head back to the room around 1 or 2:00 for a light lunch around the pool or a snack in the room. Dinner is out every night. Since our DD's are grown and on their own, it is just DH and me most of our trips. So we can be more flexible with what we eat and when. No park commandos here. We only hit the parks twice during our last 7-day stay. But we still don't cook in the room much.

[WolfpackFan]

We are more prone to do cooking when we stay at HH rather than at WDW. At HH, I love to cook a good breakfast and then sit out on our balcony and eat it. We have never really cooked any dinner meals, but sometimes when we go out to eat and have leftovers, we will eat them for lunch in the unit. Now someone, made a suggestion here a while back that I want us to try when we go to HH in June. We might go to Fresh Market and get some pre-cooked meals and take them back to the unit to heat up for dinner. That way we're not going out to eat so much, but not doing a whole lot of cooking either. I have to say (and if my DW reads this she will be astounded), I do get tired of going out to eat so much when on vacation plus it can really get expensive after a while.

I wanted to add one more thing to my post. I can see us in the future eating more and more meals in our DVC units (even at WDW). I was amazed at how high our bill was when we checked out a few weeks ago. It was a total of $500 for meals for just two of us. This really reduced the benefits of being a DVC member, which was to save money on our trips. We have three more trips planned this year and have got to do better. The food at WDW has gotten so expensive, it is really ridiculous IMO. We spent $70 one day at lunch at Yak and Yeti. And it wasn't even that good a meal. Well, I apologize for my rant.

Oh, one more thing (this is the last). Our favorite "cheap" meal at WDW is Earl of Sandwich. Now if all the meals were that cheap and good, it wouldn't be any problem at all.

[Jeremy&Susan]

We love the kitchen for breakfasts, packing a quick lunch and occasionally having a smaller dinner in the room.

Our daughter is very young and any time we can avoid lines (food lines, ride lines, etc) the better.
By eating in the room for breakfast, our daughter can play with some toys, have her formula and then take a nap before we head out for the parks. Trying to do that while on a bus or waiting in line or in a cafeteria style restaurant for food, is very trying with a baby's patience.
Same holds in the parks for lunch. By packing a lunch, we can eat while walking her to sleep. We wouldn't attempt to make a baby, trying to sleep, wait in a food-stop for mom and dad to eat.
Lastly, we like to have a few small dinners to limit the gorging we do while on vacation. Eating out every night is just way too much food, even if you only get a main course.

Also the kitchens do save a ton of money. The last trip we just returned from was a 7 day stay at SSR. We only spent a total of $400 on food for 2 adults and the baby and that included about $100 for baby food. The food cost included eating dinner out 4 nights using DDE where we could and lunch at the castle with the princesses one day and one lunch at Le Cellie (sp?). While we don't go to WDW trying to save money, we were shocked at how inexpensive the food cost was while we were there.

[Boardwalker]

How much use the kitchen gets depends on who I am there with, what time of year it is, and how much money they want to spend.

I once took my daughter's girl scout troop to a Grand Villa and they took turns cooking dinner every evening. They were 9, so even cooking was a treat to them. We were there in the summer so the parks were open really late and we would head back to the parks by 6.

In the slow times, when the parks close at 7, it is rather hard to fit dinner in the room in. We would rather be watching the fireworks.

Now my daughter is grown and if it is just she and I, we eat out. The kitchen is great for breakfast and snacks. Cooking isn't such a treat anymore.

When I am there with my sister, we eat a big lunch out and then have stuff in the room to pick at for dinner. She is rather frugal.

When I am there with my brother we need the big fridge just to hold the wine... He isn't frugal, he is just very thirsty.

[tigger2esq]

we rarely eat full meals in the villa. that said--we always have coffee in the morning and our general light breakfast which we skip down to the boardwalk bakery for in the wee morning hours. I am a big fan of their muffins, bagels and breakfast sandwiches and fresh fruit. we also sometimes bring back food to eat at night. pizza, sandwiches and lots of snacks and desserts. but I personally never "cook" while on vacation--kitchen or no kitchen....

[Uncleromulus]

We've never had lunch or dinner in the room since we joined DVC in 1992. Once in a GREAT while we'll have breakfast--but that only involves a cereal bowl, the microwave, and the coffee pot.

[DisDaydreamer]

We tend to use the kitchen more than not, but then we tend to go to VB and aren't trying to blend WDW parks with home living. I always make breakfast, it is something I don't get to make at home before leaving for work at 6:30 am. I enjoy making breakfast. DW will usually make a real dinner two or three times during our stay. She is a great cook, and I think really enjoys having a truly free day to casually make a meal that is as good as any great restaurant.

For both of us, making meals while at DVC is a luxury rather than the hassle that we have before or after working all day. Good food, relaxed environment, good food. Happy campers. Just our way of loving DVC.

[allshookup]

I like to eat out a lot at home so the same goes for vacation. We are not commando types, we like to sleep in on vacation & at WDW we rarely get to the parks at opening. We usually get up & sit around the villa & have coffee & pastries. If we are staying for more than a week, we sometimes even have a light sandwich or snack before we head to the parks or pool. If we don't eat before hand or we're not eating till much later, we'll just grab a sandwich or snack somewhere. We almost always have either a big lunch or dinner out at the parks or one of the resorts. If we are at a MK, EPCOT or MGM, in the evening, we will usually stay for the night time shows, which means we might have a late night snack back at the room. That's about it! NO cooking for me...it's my vacation too! ;)

[llmurphy17]

For us the kitchen was great. We always took our time in the morning and had breakfast and snacks. Sometimes my kids won't eat in restaurants since they are too busy distracted watching all the activity so being able to make sure they have at least good breakfast was a relief. ;)

In the future I will also probably try to use the kitchen more since the prices for food are getting expensive. :scared:

Also being able to brew my starbucks coffee was a dream :cloud9: